Can La Masia rescue Barca during the transfer ban?

The New Year brings new challenges for FC Barcelona. After a forgettable 2014 that saw the Catalan club fail to win a major trophy for the first calendar year since 2008, Barca begins 2015 with the knowledge that it will be unable to sign any players over the next 12 months.

With the two-window transfer ban for irregularities in the signing of young players upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this week, coach Luis Enrique will be forced to make do with what he has already at Camp Nou in 2015.

This year also witnessed the departure of director of football Andoni Zubizarreta after terminating his contract, while his assistant Carles Puyol has also revealed he has quit.

Zubizarreta leaves after four years in the job in the wake of the club losing their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the transfer ban imposed by FIFA regarding the registration of foreign youth players.

But could the root of the problem also be its solution? La Masia accounts for the majority of Barca’s successful squad already, with Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and many more having graduated from the club’s famous academy en route to the first team.

And now, Barca will look to that much-admired youth system for inspiration once again. “As a cule, I feel it’s an enormous injustice because there is no club that takes such care of its youth system — we are a model in that respect,” Xavi said.

“But we will come out of this because we have come out of other difficult situations in the past. It will make us stronger.”

In goal, Barca is well covered following the summer signings of Claudio Bravo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, as well as the emergence of home grown prospect Jordi Masip. At the back, however, things are less clear-cut.

Dani Alves has yet to be offered a new contract with the Catalan club and is set to leave in the summer, while fellow right back Martin Montoya is keen to depart and 2014 arrival Douglas is still a million miles from the standard needed to succeed at Camp Nou.

In central defence, Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen arrived last summer, but the latter is yet to feature for the Blaugrana following a troublesome time on the sidelines with injury.

With centre back still a problem position; Barca will hope the Belgian can prove both fitness and form in 2015. In midfield, meanwhile, Xavi is approaching the twilight of his career at almost 35, while Iniesta and Busquets have both been below their best in 2014-15.

Young Catalan midfielder Sergi Samper (who made his first-team debut earlier this season) is an ideal stand-in for Busquets or Javier Mascherano in the defensive midfield role, but replacing either of the other two could prove problematic.

Alen Halilovic, a Croatian international signed from Dinamo Zagreb last year, is impressing for Barca B but the attacking midfielder is still only 18 and does not look quite ready to make the step up to the first team.

Further forward, there are several exciting youngsters waiting in the wings. Strikers Munir El Haddadi and Sandro have already featured for the first team with some success in 2014-15, while Adama Traore’s great goal against Huesca in the Copa del Rey recently was reminiscent of the Brazilian Ronaldo in his time at the Catalan club and Jean Marie Doungou is another alternative.

Barca can also recall forwards Gerard Deulofeu and Denis Suarez from Sevilla, while Cristian Tello will be back from his loan spell at Porto in the summer along with Dutch winger Ibrahim Afellay (currently at Olympiacos), although the Blaugrana appear well stocked in the attacking department anyway with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Pedro already at the club.

Of the defenders at Barca B (which lost 7-0 to Valladolid recently in Spain’s Segunda Division), left back Alex Grimaldo and Portuguese centre back Edgar Ie (who appeared for the first team in the Copa del Rey late last year) look the most likely to make the step up, while Luis Enrique also admires right back Patric.

But with scant first-team experience and aged only 20, Ie probably does not represent the ideal solution for Luis Enrique at centre back, while the midfield remains a concern as only Samper seems ready to make the transition to the first team at the moment and Alex Song looks unlikely to succeed even if he does return from his loan spell at West Ham in the summer.

“I’m optimistic,” Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu said this week. “On one hand, our youth system boasts sufficient guarantees to be able to cover the first team. And on the other, you have to take into consideration the new players that came in last summer, in view of what was going on. Together, they will allow us to compete in all of the competitions we are taking part in until the ban comes to an end.”

With Real Madrid firing on all cylinders in La Liga and Barca unable to strengthen this window nor ahead of next season, expecting the young players to solve their problems really is asking a lot for the Catalans at this stage.

Anthony Nlebem